Having previously done a turn at canvassing, today I did some phone banking for the Kilroy for Congress campaign. I decided to do phone banking because as a dad of 2 small kids, it works a little better with my schedule. I could stay in the campaign headquarters and make calls for two hours and not have to walk and not have the extra travel time that is involved in going to a particular neighborhood and then returning to the campaign office when you're finished. And I actually believe that I reached more voters today than I did when I went canvassing. And I got home before the point where I would feel worn out.
This is not to put canvassing down. If you get into the groove with canvassing, more power to you. I believe that both canvassing and phone banking are important activities in any political campaign. Today, the focus was on trying to reach the "soft Democrats" whose support might be wavering for Kilroy and Gov. Ted Strickland.
Of the people I spoke to who were able to tell me their preference now-- which way they were voting-- most of them were supporting Kilroy and Strickland. I got a few responses from people that indicated they were more solidly Democratic than would be indicated for a pool of "soft Democrats". I only got a few responses from people who indicated they were voting for Stivers. After they indicated they were voting for Stivers, they kind of rushed to conclude the call and I didn't get a chance to ask them about Strickland/Kasich. But you could draw you own conclusions. Overall, though, if my phone banking is any indication, the "soft Democrats" are coming home to the Democratic candidates.
I wished I could have spent more time on phone banking and canvassing than I did this election season, and that I could have given more money to Mary Jo than I did. My schedule and a health concern on one weekend (my wrist was giving me some trouble) prevented me from doing more. Ironically, while I was phone banking, back home we got a call from someone else (maybe the next room over?) from the Kilroy campaign, asking for another donation so they could run some more TV ads. I already made another donation on Thursday, but perhaps I could repeat their request for funds: click here to donate to the Kilroy campaign so they can roll out some new ads in the final week of the campaign.
Next weekend, I will be back at it on Sunday night, making calls to get out the vote. If you are in OH-15, I hope you can come and join me. If you aren't in OH-15, I encourage you to get out the vote in your area by canvassing, working the phone banks, and doing whatever else you can to help Progressive Democrats win. Peace.